Shirt



M. o. WEST.

(No Model.)

SHIRT.

` bla-424,391. Patented Mar. 25', 1890.

UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE.

MARSHALL OTIS VEST, OF PORT CHESTER, NEIV YORK.

SHIRT..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 424,391, dated March 25, 1890.

Application filed January 9', 1890. Serial No. 336,356. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be itknown that I, MARSHALL Oris WEST, a citizen of the United States, residing at Port Chester, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shirts; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to shirts.

I-Icretofore it has been common to make shirts wholly of woven fabric, known as cotton or linen shirtings, when laundered cuffs and bosoms were required. It has also been common to provide the necks and front openings of knit shirts-generally worn as undershirtsmwith mere bindings or narrow facings of woven goods.

The object of this invention is to combine the advantages of a knit close-fitting undershirt with such portions of a woven shirt as require to be starched and ironed-to wit, the `wrist and collar bands and the bosom.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts forming a shirt, hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which@ Figure I represents one of my shirts in position for service; Fig. II, a portion of the back of the same; Fig. III, a stiffener, and Fig. IV a crossnsection of the back opening.

The body 5 and arms G of the shirt are made of knit goods, either in tubular webs out to the lengths required or in sheet goods cut and sewed to form, or theymay be given the required form by any process known for the manipulation of knit goods.

7 represents a neckband, 8 the wristbands, and 9 the bosom, which are all made of any "woven goods suitable to be starched and ironed in laundering-smb, for example, as linen or cotton shirtings. At the wrists and neck I prefer to dispense with the ribbed work common to those portions of undershirts, because in my style of shirt it is not desirable to have'the sleeves and neck hug the person so closely as in common undershirts. This shirt may be made like other shirts, either with open front, open back, or

open both front and back. The body of elastic knit' goods, hugging to the form of the person and secured by stitching to the edges and lower end of the non-elastic woven bosom, holds the latter stretched more smoothly than a common woven shirt-body can do; and the elastic knit arms, also clinging to the person, do not fill the coat-sleeve, but leave it to slide freely and comfortably on the persons arm.

The knit goods may be thick or thin, as re,

quired, so that this shirt may serve for both upper and under shirt in winter or summer. I/Vhen the shirt is made open at the back, the edges of the back-opening require to be stiffened to prevent their gaping apart, and thereby not only exposing the person, but failing to draw on the edges of the bosom. For thisl purpose I provide stiffeners 10, as shown in Figs. III and IV, made of thin steel strips or other material, which is flexible and elastic flatwise and stiff edgewise. For these stift'- eners pockets or sheaths 11, in or near the edges of the back at the opening, so locate the sheaths that they overlap, in order to entirely close the opening when the neckband is buttoned. The stiifeners may be drawn out when the shirt is to be laundered and be returned after that is done. These stiffeners are not for the purpose of supporting the cordage, duc., would not accomplish the puf pose and would not be an equivalent. I @me fer to bind or face the edges 12 of theslenv openings with woven goods; but this i5 nn essential to my invention.

A shirt of this style will fit persons of different sizes and forms without straining or forming wrinkly bunches at the armpits or shoulders, and will adjust itself to both round and s'quare shoulders and to straight or humped backs. The cost of production is less than that of the common bosomed shirt, and its advantages are many and its disadvantages few.

Having thus described my invention, what I believe to be new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

l. A shirt-body of elastic goods, having an opening in the back, a button and button-hole at the edges thereof, overlapping sheaths each open at one end at the edges of the said opening, and stiifeners removably fitted to the said sheaths, substantially as shown and described, whereby the opening is kept closed against the strain of the elastic goods, as set forth.

2. The combination, in a shirt, of a body of elastic `goods, having an opening in front, a oosom of non-elastic goods, adapted to be starohed and ironed, set into the said opening and secured at its edges to the front edges of the body at that opening, the body having also aback-opening and beingprovided with sheaths along the edges thereof, and stiffeners removably fitted to the said sheaths, substantially as shown and described, Where-A by the bosom will be kept smooth by the strain of the sides of the body between the edges of the bosom and said opening and yet the opening remain closed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

MARSHALL OTIS WEST. Witnesses:

FRANK H. BROWN, E. L. THoMPsoN. 

